Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance: Preparing for Tomorrow’s Conflicts Today

09/18/2025 By Robbin Laird On September 18, 2025, the Sir Richard Williams Foundation held its 2nd seminar for the year which was entitled: "Fight Tonight: Combat Readiness at the Speed of Relevance." I will highlight the presentations at the conference in a series of articles over the next few weeks. I will conclude the series with an article providing my perceptions… Read more »

Australia’s Strategic Dynamic: Redefining Alliance Partnership in the Indo-Pacific

09/17/2025 By Robbin Laird The comfortable certainties of the post-Cold War era are dissolving. For Australia, this transformation presents both unprecedented challenges and opportunities to reshape its role as a strategic actor in the Indo-Pacific. Australia is moving from alliance dependence toward more strategic independence while deepening operational integration with trusted partners. The traditional model of alliance partnership, where Australia provided… Read more »

Brazil at the Crossroads: Why Resource Sovereignty Requires Democratic Partnership

09/17/2025 Brazil stands at a critical juncture that will determine whether it emerges as a strategic power or remains trapped as a raw material supplier in China's sphere of influence. While President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration pursues deeper integration with Beijing through initiatives like BRICS expansion and transcontinental infrastructure projects, this path threatens to foreclose the very opportunities that… Read more »

Not the Russian Empire: Putin Brings Back Soviet Scientific and Technological Decline

09/15/2025 By Robbin Laird My friend and colleague Erik Hoffmann and I worked extensively on analyzing the efforts to change the Soviet system under the pressures of the technological revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. This was when Brzezinski published his book on the technotronic age and described the challenges a Soviet autocratic system faced to try to modernize. The Soviet… Read more »

Russia’s Adaptation to Drone Warfare

09/14/2025 By Pasquale Preziosa In recent months, Russia has radically transformed the way it uses drones, making these low-cost tools a pillar of its strategy. What appeared at the beginning of the war to be a rudimentary bombing campaign, conducted with Iranian-made aircraft adapted for local use, has gradually evolved into a much more sophisticated approach, capable of integrating industrial production,… Read more »

Admiral Nicolas Vaujour Provides a French Navy Perspective on Global Dynamics

09/08/2025 By Pierre Tran Paris - The Chinese navy was large, growing fast, and led by a complex command structure which showed an aggressive approach in operations at sea, the navy chief of staff, Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, told the Association des Journalistes de Défense (AJD) Sept. 3. Meanwhile, the Russian navy had lost much of its access to the open seas… Read more »